Is the concept of karma as an external force superstitious?

Yes, it is very much like believing in magic, or at least some sort of divine principle of justice.

Mainly its just wishful thinking.

Its nice to believe, but there's no evidence for it.

This whole business of Karma and rebirth is a lot more complicated than we generally give it credit for. However . . . Only Buddhas have the oportunity not to return. The rest of us soldier on whether we want to or not. What we do have some control over is what sort of life we will have next time around. Our actions in this life determine our circumstances in the next. Meditation, following the Precepts, living as harmless a life as possible, all these things help. What do I personally want? I hope in this life that I will have cleared up enough old Karma to be allowed an easier time next time, but I would still want to carry on the spiritual path I've chosen.

The theory of karma harps on the Newtonian principle that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Every time we think or do something, we create a cause, which in time will bear its corresponding effects. And this cyclical cause and effect generates the concepts of (or the world) and birth and reincarnation. It is the personality of a human being or the jivatman - with its positive and negative actions - that causes karma.

It's cause-and-effect, in a complex and chaotic way, like the Butterfly Effect. We cannot measure it, just as we cannot exactly predict the weather; but we figure that our psychological present arose from our psychological past, and will lead to whatever we become in the future. It's not an external magic force.

Karma isn't superstition in that sense.

Karma is the chain of action and consequence that determines the courses of our lives.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction with zero externalities.

Stuff happens now because stuff happened before.

Is that superstitious?

Karma?

Look in the real world.

Decode this lyrics " You'll see "

"The look of love"

'An eye for an eye"

"Love"

"Love is love"

"Love changes everything"

"Instant karma"

"Candle in the wind"

"Working class hero"

"Jealous guy"

"Zombie"

"Borrowed time"

Luke 21.30-36

Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49

Luke 9.25,55-56,60

Luke 8.5-8,10-17

Luke 4.4

Revelation 22.13-17

Genesis 11.1,3-9

Revelation 16.14

Luke 24.44-45,47-48

Matt 5.9,14

Luke 11.33-36, 46-52

Leviticus 4.13,22

Exodus 20.1-7

Matt 22.17-21,32

Exodus 20.12

Exodus 20.1-18

Exodus 23.24,32

What do you think?

Deffinition of Karma from the Buddhist Dictionary:

karma

[業] (Skt; Pali kamma; Jpn go )

Potentials in the inner, uncon-scious realm of life created through one's actions in the past or present that manifest themselves as various results in the present or future. Karma is a variation of the Sanskrit karman, which means act, action, a former act leading to a future result, or result. Buddhism interprets karma in two ways: as indicating three categories of action, i.e., mental, verbal, and physical, and as indicating a dormant force thereby produced. That is, one's thought, speech, and behavior, both good and bad, imprint themselves as a latent force or potential in one's life.This latent force, or karma, when activated by an external stimulus, produces a corresponding good or bad effect, i.e., happiness or suffering. There are also neutral acts that produce neither good nor bad results. According to this concept of karma, one's actions in the past have shaped one's present reality, and one's actions in the present will in turn influ-ence one's future. This law of karmic causality operates in perpetuity, car-rying over from one lifetime to the next and remaining with one in the latent state between death and rebirth.It is karma, therefore, that accounts for the circumstances of one's birth, one's individual nature, and in general the differences among all living beings and their environments. It was traditionally viewed as a natural process in which no god or deity could intervene. The Hindu gods, in fact, were subject to the same law of karma as people, having become gods supposedly through the creation of good karma. The idea of karma predates Buddhism and was already prevalent in Indian society well before the time of Shakyamuni. This pre-Buddhist view of karma, however, had an element of determinism, serving more to explain one's lot in life and compel one to accept it than inspiring hope for change or transforma-tion. The Brahmans, who were at the top of the Indian class structure by birth, may well have emphasized this view to secure their own role. The idea of karma was further developed, however, in the Buddhist teachings.Shakyamuni maintained that what makes a person noble or humble is not birth but one's actions. Therefore the Buddhist doctrine of karma is not fatalistic. Rather, karma is viewed not only as a means to explain the present, but also as the potential force through which to influence one's future. Mahayana Buddhism holds that the sum of actions and experiences of the present and previous lifetimes are accumulated and stored as karma in the depths of life and will form the framework of in-dividual existence in the next lifetime. Buddhism therefore encourages people to create the best possible karma in the present in order to ensure the best possible outcome in the future. In terms of time, some types of karma produce effects in the present lifetime, others in the next lifetime, and still others in subsequent lifetimes. This depends on the nature, intensity, and repetitiveness of the acts that caused them. Only those types of karma that are extremely good or bad will last into future existences. The other, more minor, types will produce results in this lifetime. Those that are neither good nor bad will bring about no results.Karma is broadly divided into two types: fixed and unfixed. Fixed karma is said to produce a fixed result—that is, for any given fixed karma there is a specific effect that will become manifest at a specific time. In the case of unfixed karma, any of various results or general outcomes might arise at an indeterminate time. Irrespective of these differences, the Buddhist philosophy of karma, particularly that of Mahayana Buddhism, is not fatalistic. No ill effect is so fixed or predetermined that good karma from Buddhist practice in the present cannot transform it for the better. Moreover, any type of karma needs interaction with the corresponding conditions to become manifest. See also fixed karma; unfixed karma.

(The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism)

karma in general does not exist

God said what so ever a man sows that shall he reap.

regardless how kind you are to some people they can and will be nasty back to you or take advantage of you.

There is a remarkable variety of approaches for promoting holistic health, some derived from ancient cultural traditions, whether religious or esoteric, others connected with the psychological theories developed in Esalen during the years 1960-1970. Advertising connected with New Age covers a wide range of practices as acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic, kinesiology, homeopathy, iridology, massage and various kinds of “bodywork” (such as orgonomy, Feldenkrais, reflexology, Rolfing, polarity massage, therapeutic touch etc.), meditation and visualisation, nutritional therapies, psychic healing, various kinds of herbal medicine, healing by crystals, metals, music or colours, reincarnation therapies and, finally, twelve-step programmes and self-help groups.(25) The source of healing is said to be within ourselves, something we reach when we are in touch with our inner energy or cosmic energy.

Inasmuch as health includes a prolongation of life, New Age offers an Eastern formula in Western terms. Originally, reincarnation was a part of Hindu cyclical thought, based on the atman or divine kernel of personality (later the concept of jiva), which moved from body to body in a cycle of suffering (samsara), determined by the law of karma, linked to behaviour in past lives. Hope lies in the possibility of being born into a better state, or ultimately in liberation from the need to be reborn. What is different in most Buddhist traditions is that what wanders from body to body is not a soul, but a continuum of consciousness. Present life is embedded in a potentially endless cosmic process which includes even the gods. In the West, since the time of Lessing, reincarnation has been understood far more optimistically as a process of learning and progressive individual fulfilment. Spiritualism, theosophy, anthroposophy and New Age all see reincarnation as participation in cosmic evolution. This post-Christian approach to eschatology is said to answer the unresolved questions of theodicy and dispenses with the notion of hell. When the soul is separated from the body individuals can look back on their whole life up to that point, and when the soul is united to its new body there is a preview of its coming phase of life. People have access to their former lives through dreams and meditation techniques.(26)

2.2.4. Wholeness: A Magical Mystery Tour

One of the central concerns of the New Age movement is the search for “wholeness”. There is encouragement to overcome all forms of “dualism”, as such divisions are an unhealthy product of a less enlightened past. Divisions which New Age proponents claim need to be overcome include the real difference between Creator and creation, the real distinction between man and nature, or spirit and matter, which are all considered wrongly as forms of dualism. These dualistic tendencies are often assumed to be ultimately based on the Judaeo-Christian roots of western civilisation, while it would be more accurate to link them to gnosticism, in particular to Manichaeism. The scientific revolution and the spirit of modern rationalism are blamed particularly for the tendency to fragmentation, which treats organic wholes as mechanisms that can be reduced to their smallest components and then explained in terms of the latter, and the tendency to reduce spirit to matter, so that spiritual reality – including the soul – becomes merely a contingent “epiphenomenon” of essentially material processes. In all of these areas, the New Age alternatives are called “holistic”. Holism pervades the New Age movement, from its concern with holistic health to its quest for unitive consciousness, and from ecological awareness to the idea of global “networking”.

man made

it can only haunt you if you choose it to

in other words it is of your own making